Another ramble from several months ago, somehow covering the SAY awards, Franz / Sparks, and Charlotte Church…

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s those ‘showbiz’ columns which are nothing more than a thinly-veiled ego-boost where the writer can tell their reader just how great they’re doing – glittering after-show parties, name dropping, living out their fantasies via the young, successful and good-looking celebrities they’re supposed to be reporting on.

So I can only apologise for what follows. But I can hardly mump about how evil Apple is every week (though I note that Taylor Swift has forced the megalithic computer company to pay for music used on their new streaming service).

In other news, Charlotte Church has become the new face of anti-austerity, and the Sex Pistols are fronting a credit card. Excuse me while I go for a lie down.

That’s better. The politics of pop makes award ceremonies rather pale into insignificance. Who was it that said “Music isn’t a competition”? No-one, ever?
We seem to be inundated by contests – the credible, like the (cough) Barclaycard Mercurys, and the more overtly financially-driven ones like The Brits. It’d be very easy – and pretty hypocritical – to slate these and praise The Scottish Album of The Year awards, which took place last week. A good night out, and the unusual sight of Paolo Nutini and Belle and Sebastian losing out to ultra-obscure Aberdeen songstress Kathryn Joseph.

You might not have heard of any of this until now, and that is a bit of a problem – backed by distiller Dewars, as well as Creative Scotland, the sponsors would doubtless have received more column inches if Idlewild or Mogwai had won.
As it stands, it’s like Burnley winning the Premier League in England – good for grass roots street cred, but unlikely to excite the neutrals.

The SAY awards pride themselves on the complete independence of the judging panel, and the lack of big-name winners in the past four years suggests major record labels have no influence whatsoever.

(Not that Belle and Sebastian could complain anyway, given that their Brit Newcomer award was influenced by their fans’ pioneering experiment in internet block voting, leading to a disappointed Steps and an apoplectic Pete Waterman).
That was the 90s, and it feels like it too. The year after, Glasgow band The Delgados lost out by a casting vote to Badly Drawn Boy in the Mercurys.
The Delgados pioneered independent music-making in Scotland through their Chemikal Underground label, and paved the way for Franz Ferdinand, who won the Mercury in 2004.

Curiously, the past few gigs I’ve seen (apart from 22 bands in five hours in Inverness) were all far from the first flushes of youth.

A still-sprightly Buzzcocks, 70s post-punkers Wire, the unnaturally youthful Julian Cope, and Franz Ferdinand… not that they are in that same age bracket, but their collaboration (as FFS) with pop pensioners Sparks is a lesson for ageing hipsters everywhere; the way the two acts meld together suggests that despite the decades between them, they share a lot of common ground.

Despite all that, I don’t have any pop gossip or backstage tales. I’d love to tell you I met them, but we stayed put at the back. They do say you should never meet your heroes, and I’m not sure how Ron and Russell would have looked close up.

Desaparecidos
Payola
(Saddle Creek)
Following their 2002 debut album, this Nebrasaka quintet disappeared from view.
They’d not split, however – just been a bit quiet largely due to main man Conor Oberst’s considerable success with Bright Eyes.
Recording again since 2012, their second long-player combines new recordings with releases from the past three years.
The 14 tunes here are more ‘now’ than their rather punk rock debut – ‘Left Is Right’ is a deceptive opener with a cinematic keyboard sound, but things become more straightforward.
Indeed, the vocals on ‘Underground Man’ are very redolent of TV Smith of 1970s legends The Adverts.
From then on, it’s a rag-bag of influences, with great angry songwriting never stepping lower than (hard-edged) power pop – which should please rebels old and young.
HHHH

(This piece originally appeared in the Lytham St Annes Express).